If you haven’t heard Mayor Bloomberg has decided to employ another tactic to fight obesity in New York City. He’s proposing a ban on all soft drinks/ sodas over 16 ounces in stores, restaurants, and even movie theaters. This would still allow someone to purchase another drink if they like, but would reduce the serving to no more than 16 ounces at a time. His reasoning, which I feel is correct, is that people tend to eat the portion size given to them. If you cut the serving, you may help a lot of people curb obesity and disease.
According to an ABC news report on this issue: “If you have just one 20 ounce soda a day and you cut that out of your diet, you can lose 25 pounds in one year!” That’s pretty astounding, and I believe worthy of action. I am all for allowing people the freedom to make their own choices, but enabling the American population to become obese and strung out on pharmaceuticals has got to stop! Fast food is a drug. If one of your parents or siblings was strung out on cocaine, would you not eventually have to intervene and show some tough love? A hard drug addiction is not that different from fast foods. There have been many documented scientific studies that prove that fast foods are as addictive as heroine or cocaine and produce similar responses in the brain. I also don’t think that if you leave it up to the consumers—who are strung out like crack addicts on sugar, salt, etc. that is making them fatter and sicker—that they will necessarily make the right choice.
The fact is companies spend all this money on these manufactured, factory made foods that are DESIGNED to make you want to eat more and more, and give you no nutrition. Our bodies need minerals, vitamins, and high quality nutrients to thrive. When you choose to eat fast food you are essentially feeding your body absolutely nothing of substance and therefore you can remain hungry and overeat large portions. On top of that the sugars, the salts, and the manufactured flavors added will keep you coming back for more. If the portion sizes of most fast food items were changed, labeling of foods was more transparent, and laws were in place to discourage consumption of disease inducing foods and encourage companies to sell life rather than death for the sake of profit our society would be a much healthier place.
Some people argue that the government may be going too far. That to me is a moot point. There are plenty of people serving in our government profiting from the subsidizing of corn and all the high fructose corn syrup laden drinks and foods that are making Americans sick. At this point I think the government along with companies peddling these fast foods have a duty to apologize, intervene, and stop the trajectory of obesity and disease. Why not make the cost of eating real, healthier foods the most affordable so even people with low incomes have the means to choose health? I shouldn’t be able to pay less money for a box full of fake chemicals and industrial materials that will in turn make me sick and strung out. It is time for a shift. If things continue as they are, it’s about to get very serious in America and the healthcare system is not going to be prepared for it. The veggie will definitely hit the fan, and I won’t be happy to say I called it.
That said, if Mayor Bloomberg wants to wage an intervention on the obese population in the Big Apple via cutting out soda consumption, I applaud him for it. The issue Mr. Bloomberg, is that if you want to tackle obesity for real, you can’t propose to cut down on soda consumption and then go and support National Donut Day. I’m pretty sure some of those same people who guzzle sodas over 16 ounces get down with a Krispy Kreme every now and then. It’s all or nothing Mr. Bloomberg, and the only way you will earn respect from the masses is if you commit fully. I say EAT TO LIVE. -XoXo Raw Girl
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To read more on the issue check out this article:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8685040